


Not Like Last Time

by wottertrainer



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-19 05:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3598458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wottertrainer/pseuds/wottertrainer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A New Game Plus run through of Persona 4 Golden with a female Protagonist and a male Marie counterpart named Marion. Will involve a lot of timeskipping as I write them as I play. More characters will be added to the list as i write more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Game +

**Author's Note:**

> The protagonists's name is Shiori Seta, and these will likely be uploaded in sets of two or three, depending on how much I write for each little drabble and what not.

_ 10:00 4/11/11 _

“Hey, you dropped this.”

_The voice catches your ears, and you spin around, staring wide eyed at the male, arm extended with a crumpled piece of paper in his hand._

“…y-yes, thank you…” _You reach out your hand to the shorter person, and your fingers touch. It feels like a shock makes it’s way through your skin, and you tug the paper back, staring intently at the male. He seems familiar, empty green eyes giving you a curious look through short, black hair. You know you’ve seen him before, but you can’t remember where to save your life._

_He scoffs, seemingly offended by how fast you pulled back, and rolls his eyes, shoving his hands into his pants pockets and turning away._

 

“Whatever. All I did was pick it up.” _He walks, and you watch him intently until you hear your uncle calling for you, snapping you out of your daze._

* * *

_11:59 4/13/11_

  
  
_You glance out your bedroom window, internally laughing at yourself for believing such a ludicrous story, the idea of an unplugged TV turning itself on at midnight._  
  
_You sigh, running hands through long, wavey silver hair, wondering for a moment why this didn't seem to be the first time you'd heard this tale._  
  
_And then the TV flickers on._  
  
_An eerie yellow engulfs the room, and your eyes are stuck on the screen, and suddenly your head is_ pounding _._

**I am thou...**

 

 _Visions of your classmates stream through your head in various situations, from your homeroom to Junes’ food court to the shopping district to various places you can’t for the life of you remember, and for a moment you feel numb, like all of these visions aren’t visions, but memories, and it hurts. Your mouth opens, pain coursing through your veins and making you cry out, a tense hand reaching out for something, anything to balance yourself on, and suddenly your hand’s pushing through the TV screen, and you scream as a loud clash of thunder booms overhead, causing you to jump back and fall to the ground, your head making direct contact with the coffee table behind you._  
  
_You grab your head, hissing in pain before staring up at the screen._  
  
“W-what....?”  
  
_You don’t have time to investigate, thudding coming from the hallway results in Nanako knocking at your door, asking if you’re alright.  You reassure her, and as she trods back downstairs, you stare back up at the screen, trying to remember what you just saw, only to realize there’s nothing to remember._  
  
_It feels like you can’t access a part of your mind, some strange force preventing you from delving deeper into finding out what exactly you just saw._  
  
_You make your way to bed, curling up on the futon and drifting off to sleep with more questions than answers._


	2. The Backlot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You feel pressure against the half of you still in Junes, and suddenly you’re being thrust forwards, Chie clinging to your waist and Yosuke screaming in your ear, and now you know there’s nothing you can do, you’re falling and there’s no way back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor Adachi Social Link spoilers! Somehow I managed to mash together the game and both of the animation's first TV world visits, and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

_ 16:00 4/14/11 _

 

“It’s actually pretty empty in here.” _You say, and you hear Yosuke and Chie’s voices of complaint reverberating around you.  Your head buzzes, and you feel nothing but familiarity in the strange tingle on your cheeks. _

“Seta-san, You need to get out of there! Customers are coming!”  

_ You ignore the male, ignore Chie’s arms at your waist pulling you back, and reach out into the white before you.  _

__

**I have to…**

 

_ You feel pressure against the half of you still in Junes, and suddenly you’re being thrust forwards, Chie clinging to your waist and Yosuke screaming in your ear, and now you know there’s nothing you can do, you’re falling and there’s no way back.  _

 

_ —— _

“Are you guys okay?”  _You ask, and the others whine. Chie hurt her hip, and Yosuke cracked his ass on his wallet. _

 

 _ ' _ That’s what he gets for having to piss. _’ You silently think, then turn your attention to your surroundings. You see something. _

 

_ It looks like another person… a male?  _

_ You’re silent as your feet move, carrying you in the direction of the figure, and the other two yell at you before chasing after you, but you don’t care.  _

 

_ All that matters is that you catch up to him.  _

 

_ —— _

“This noose… and rope… they’re never a good sign…” _Yosuke’s focusing on the room, and you feel the heaviest sense of deja vu you think you’ve ever felt.  You know you’ve been here before. _

_ You stand in line with the chair. Concentrating, you stare at it until you think you see a familiar figure standing in front of it.  _

 

_ It’s pointing a gun at you.  _

 

_ You jump out of the way as your mind makes up the sound of a gunshot, and the glass behind you shatters, and you stare back at it before gasping at the giant tongue and mouth without a face as the creature tries to devour you without a second thought.  _

_ Chie screams and Yosuke calls for everyone to run so you do. You lead them back the way you came, through the twisting roads that remind you of somewhere you know you should know, all the way back to where the three of you first entered this world, only for you to run smack into a mascot.   _

_ You land on your face, hard, and the bear whines at you for disturbing his nap. You ignore him, looking at your surroundings.  _

 

_ The monster hasn’t followed you.  _

 

_ Yosuke collapses, breathing heavily while Chie does the same, and your pant, on your hands and knees. One of your braids came undone while you were running and you make a note to buy new hairbands before you leave Junes as you sit up and  untie the other. You fix your hair back into one single braid, listening to the mascot talk to you all.  _

“I’m saying I’ll let you out!”  

“We just said we can’t get ou— wait, you can do that?” _Yosuke’s bickering with the bear, and his comment makes the creature stomp his foot angrily.  The squeak his feet makes seems familiar, but you can’t place where you think you’ve heard it from. _

_ Three large, stacked up antenna TV’s appear in the space in front of you, and the bear promptly pushes you through.  _

 

_ The familiar tingle stings your cheeks, and it’s over too quick.  _

 

_ — _

_ You tumble out first onto the laminate floorings of Junes’ electronic’s section. Chie lands on your back, knocking the wind out of you, and Yosuke lands on her legs, and your forehead smacks the ground. You yelp in pain, but the others are too preoccupied untangling their own limbs form each other to notice.  _

_  Yosuke looks up and yells, saying something about Misusu Hiiragi’s posters being in that room, but you can’t remember them, you’d been too preoccupied with the figure sitting on the chair, and it isn’t until then you feel something warm trailing along the rim of your ear.  _

_ You bring your hand up and rub your fingers against blood.  _

“Damn, Seta-san, are you okay? That glass must’ve cut you, since you were so close to it when it broke.” _Chie finally takes notice, and Yosuke quickly stands and helps you both up. _

“There’s a first aid kit in the break room, Seta. Let’s go get that cleaned up.” _He offers, and you accept. _

 

_ —  _

_ It’s hard to lie to your uncle.  You manage to make up an excuse, though, something about tripping and falling and cutting your ear on a broken beer bottle on the way home, and he takes that excuse, sitting back into the couch and grumbling about litterers.  _

_ You sneeze, the aftereffects of the fog making your body feel twice as heavy, and your cousin suggests you take some medicine and go right to bed.  _

_ You lie down soon after, stomach growling and head pounding, but you almost instantly fall asleep.  _

 

_ —— _

_ You feel yourself stir hours later, just enough to catch sight of your TV glowing yellow, and momentarily wonder why it’s doing so before ignoring it, rolling over and falling back asleep.  _

 

_ —— _

_14:45 4/15/11 _

 

_ Yosuke hands you a golf club, smiling, glad you’re going along with him.  _

 

_ You know his rope won’t work, but you test out the club anyway, finding it a decent enough substitute for a weapon, light enough to use as a makeshift rapier, so you figure you’ll be okay, though you’ll bring your practice sword from home next time for sure, this is too front heavy to use efficiently.  _

 

_ Yosuke hands Chie the rope, and you’re already sticking your head into the TV when you feel Yosuke take your hand, following you back into the familiar tingling feeling of the TV.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in awhile. I haven't really had time to play and this is all I accomplished the last time I picked the game up last weekend. I don't know if I'll finish any of my other fics, either, I've kinda lost the will for the Lovers!Yosuke one. But regardless, I'm gonna try and play more often so I can write more for this!


	3. I Am Thou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke and Shiori decide to go back into the TV to see if they can find Saki Konishi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> changed the font style of this because it's just easier like this i guess, so I'll go fix the other chapters another time I guess

Afternoon 4/15/11  


 

>>Try hitting Teddie

 

You watch him fall to the ground, whining and squirming and crying, unable to get up on his own.

 

* * *

 

 

You follow the mascot as he leads you and Yosuke through a familiar looking place…

 

“Hey, this looks kinda like the Shopping District. They really went all out on this.” Yosuke looks around, admiring the now-clear surroundings. His glasses look standard, an orange that matches his headphones with long, hexagonal lenses. Yours look a little fancier, two toned frames of black lining the top of your square and clear on the bottom. Two small crystals adorn where the frames meet the arms of the glasses.

 

You hear Yosuke and Teddie bicker for a moment, a familiarity that makes your lips curl just slightly, like it’s simply good friends bickering like any other day and not like strangers that just met in a crazy, fucked up world. They talk about Konishi-sempai, and Yosuke points out she lives around here.

 

He leads you both to the liquor store, and Teddie pulls you back before you both can enter and investigate the strange black and red pattern that’s where the doors should be.

 

“Shadows!! The shadows are here! Be beary careful, guys!”

  
  


Teddie points to the entrance of the shop, and you stare at the goop that has begun to slop out from the twisting store entrance.  Strange masks and large globs of gunky goop slide out and create purple hands and arms. They begin creeping towards the three of you, leaving goop that trails the ground as they move before jumping into the air and forming into those disgusting mouth things that chased you yesterday, colors flushing to replace the vaguely translucent material they’re made of.

 

Your ears ring, the sound filling your everything and screaming at you, and you cover your ears.

 

**I am thou.**

 

The two toned, feminine voice rings in your ears and you stare straight ahead, breathing heavily.

 

**Thou art I.  The time has come. You are the one who will open the door.**

 

Your hand is no longer empty, and you pull hands from your ears and stare down at the blue card in your hands. You flip it over and see a blank front. It glows white. Your eyes widen and you smile.

 

You know this feeling.

 

“Per…”

 

The card bursts into flames in your hand, cool, gentle blue flames.

 

“-so…..”

 

The ground around you glows blue, and your hand lifts up the card.

 

“…na— **ah!!** ”

 

Something’s wrong.

 

Your voice catches in your throat and you choke, you feel like you’re being crushed. The flames change from blue to red and you let out a silent scream, a faint whisper ringing in your ear so quietly you can’t hear it. You feel a heavy, ominous presence standing before you as a bright white light obscures your vision. It feels like hands are on your cheeks for an instant, and then they move, moving through your skin. Something invisible, a human shape, turns and rests itself inside your body, and it’s painful for only a few moments.

 

A wave of relief washes over you as the feeling settles, blue flames returning, and you look at the card once more in your hand. A silhouette has filled the blank space, and it’s almost too exciting, the exhilarating feeling as you crush the card in your hand. Your eyes glow the color of the flames as they grow around you, the wind created from them causing your hair to fly around you, flailing like your braids are trying to fly away.  

 

You smile as the figure forms behind you, a humanoid double your height wearing the strangest of clothes. A tall collared  white coat adorned with a seemingly endless number of buckles.  Long, pointed fingers holding a staff that looks like a mix between a large knife with a ribbed edge and a naginata.  A mask of silver hiding yellow eyes and the face of the figure with long, curly silver hair taking shape behind you.

 

Static engulfs the humanoid, and it falters and disappears instantly.

 

The shadows scream, focusing now on you rather than the male and mascot cowering in front of you.

  
  
  


You take the stance you usually do before a typical battle when you used to take lessons in fencing, annoyed at the choice of weapon you’re forced to use, but you feel more powerful and focused and in control than you think you ever have.

 

The first purple-pink creature speeds towards you, and you hold up your weapon in defense, straining to hold your balance when the shadow makes contact with the putting club, and you quickly swing the creature away, holding your hand out while given the chance.

 

**“Izanami!!”**

 

Your vision fills with blue, and the flames engulf your hand once more,  and you crush the card floating in your hand.

 

The humanoid appears again, and you point at one of the creatures.

 

“Zio!” Your lips speak the foreign word as if it was an old friend, and the womanly figure behind you screeches, both hands moving forward to face the targeted shadow, bright blue wisps of electricity flying out of her hand and into the monster, destroying it instantly.

 

——

 

You let the putting club fall from your hand as you stagger, watching the shadow explode as Izanami’s blade runs it clean in half.

 

You’re on your knees before you know it, and Yosuke and Teddie are standing over you.

 

“Wow!! I didn’t know you could wield such amazing power, Sensei!!”   Teddie’s complimenting you as Yosuke helps you to your feet.

 

“Yeah, what was that thing? Did you say ‘persona?’”

 

Voices in your surroundings cut off any further conversation.

 

* * *

 

 

The sense of deja vu is overwhelming. You remember this.

 

That twisted grin on a familiar face. Eyes glowing yellow.

 

A Shadow.

 

Yosuke’s freaking out, trying and trying to deny what facts the shadow was saying, and you can’t do anything to calm him down now. You can only let the shadow ebb it’s host on, it’s voice sickening you with every secret it reveals about it’s host.

 

He can’t deny it soon enough for you. You wants to rip the shadow apart, rip the snide little smirk off his face and make him suffer for hurting Yosuke, even if it is a part of himself doing it.

 

Yosuke collapses in shock as his shadow shifts and changes before him, and you’re already drawing your makeshift weapon and charging, exerting a loud cry as your weapon almost makes contact with the frog-like creature.

 

You scream, swept away, feeling the wind piercing your skin as you fly back through the air, and grunt as you land, slowly sitting up and glaring daggers at the creature. Your body is circled with blue flames once more, and you scream your persona’s name as you stand up and ready for the next attack.

 

* * *

 

 

“...You have to be brave, Yosuke.” You say, a kind smile overtaking your exhausted face, reaching out to hold his shoulder. He thinks, nodding for a moment, and turns to face the shadow... himself.

 

“It hurts to face yourself... You.... you’re me, and I’m you.”

 

A blue glow engulfs him, and the shadow gives a relieved smile before shattering before them, reforming as a card in Yosuke’s hand and a figure before him. Striking resemblances to the shadow you just defeated appear on the suit the persona is wearing, and the silly looking frog eyes - ears? - make you smile.

 

“My Persona... Jiraiya.”

 

Yosuke collapses with a choked sob once his persona is disappearing, laughing and rubbing his eyes, and you kneel down next to him, listening to how embarrassed he is, how much it hurt to hear his sempai talk down on him, and you reassure him with a small smile, and you help him stand before the three of you start to make your way back to the Backlot.

 

* * *

 

 

You run into Yukiko on your way home, and you manage to hide your exhaustion from her, focusing instead on the small talk Yukiko starts up between the two of you.

 

She asks if you’re getting along with Chie, and it takes you a moment to remember the brunette that screamed at you and Yosuke when you toppled out of the TV and ran away crying over how worried - ‘scared stiff, damnit’ were the words Chie used, now that she thinks back on it - she’d been.

 

“I’m not sure yet.” You decide to say.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s raining again when you arrive home, tapping the tip of your umbrella on the ground outside before stepping in and slipping off your shoes. Your uncle isn’t home, so you and Nanako sit and watch TV together.

 

Nanako’s about to change the channel when you spot a familiar, pink kimono, eyes growing wide and you snatch the remote away, eyes glued to the screen, watching Yukiko speaking to the strange interviewer.

 

* * *

 

 

You can’t make out the appearance of the woman on the Midnight Channel, so you decide to go to bed.

 

You stir in an unfamiliar place.

 

No, that’s not true. You know this place. You’ve been here before in your dreams, but you still don’t know where it is. 

 

A figure appears before you, cloaked in something long and black... or is it white?  A voice rings in your ears gently, but you still can’t make out the gender of whomever is speaking.

 

“I wonder how well you will fare this time. Please, do not disappoint me, child of man.”

 

You want to answer, to ask the figure who they are or what they want, but the fog is overwhelming. You feel like you’re drowning in it.

 

* * *

 

 

You wake up in a cold sweat, gasping and shaking.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idek i cut a shit ton of dialogue i'm still debating on how much i'll be actually writing bc if I do the whole game this fic will never be done but i also like the subtle alterations so maybe just the big events??????? idek yet we'll see how things go.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry they're so short, they're little drabbles i've been putting up on the RP blog I run for Shiori. If you want a general idea of her appearance it's literally just like any other fem protag with uncool braids and Souji's bangs and stuff. She's the same height as Souji, so she's taller than Yosuke and Adachi.


End file.
